Identiy

Identity and Belonging: The Catcher in the Rye and ontogenesis Up Asian in Australia
K aren Ford
June 21, 2010
  
IN PAULINE Nguyens falsehood, The bravery of Soldiers, her father says: You are the likes of cars with no direction ... and I am your steering wheel, leading you in the right direction. This extract resonates because it not only suggests the power that our parents have over our lives and the pressures they charge on us to be successful, but also their agreeable devotion to our journeys. 
The link between Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye and the speakers in Growing up Asian in Australia is youth, and how difficult it can be to belong term maintaining a sense of who we are. 
Reading Alice Pungs collection of stories in Growing up Asian in Australia reminded me of my own youth back in the 1970s. I went to a school where many of my friends were Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Czech, Maltese and Polish. We would do the lunch-swap thing; I loved their salami sandwiches on chunky sportsmanlike bread, while they coveted my Vegemite sandwiches. When I look back on that now, I can see that I was  embracing difference, while  my friends were embracing sameness. While I was in the Anglo minority at my school I realise now that my friends felt like they were in a minority.



 
Such a strong need to fit in is expressed by Sunil Badami in the story Sticks and Stones and Such-like, in which Sunils alienation  leads him to adopt an Aussie name, Neil. If I couldnt be less(prenominal) black, surely I could contain a name that make me feel less black? 
The desire to belong was so great for Sunil that he was prepared to reject who he was. At infrastructure I was Sunil, trying not to eat my dhal with my left over(p) hand ... in the real world, in the brilliant earth of my imagination, I was Neil. I fitted in. I scored a double-century in the Ashes. Sunil negotiation about his mothers anger at his new identity and she asks, Who are you? What are you? You should be proud! 
Whats sad about...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my essay .